Quiet Observation: Artists & their Abodes 1950s – 1990s

Location: Gallery 2, first floor

Quiet Observations Freud

Lucian Freud: Paddington Interior, Harry Diamond (1970), ©The Lucian Freud Archive. All rights reserved 2022. Bridgeman Images. 

Lucian Freud’s painting ‘Paddington Interior, Harry Diamond’ is one of the best known in the VG&M’s collection. Its setting is the artist’s home. To celebrate the centenary of Freud’s birth in December 1922, this display shows how he and a number of his contemporaries were inspired by the personal environments they lived and worked in.

Freud disliked painting anywhere other than his house, whereas other artists used a separate studio. Some focussed on objects around them to create still-life arrangements, while others painted what they saw from their windows. All drew on the quietness of their private spaces to take time for detailed observation. The result is a varied group of artworks, each with a sense of the place and personality of the artist.

All the artworks are from the VG&M’s collection

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